Janet Jackson on Fame

Janet Jackson talks about how she disliked working on Fame!

Extract From her book "True You"

"While James and I were together, I was cast on "Fame". Though  loved acting and wanted to pursue it, I wasn't excited about this television show, and if it had been left up to me, I would have passed. Joseph, though insisted that I take the role of Cleo Hewitt - so, still the obedient child, I acquiesced. The experience was trying.

I was taking birth control pills and as a result, I ballooned so much that people on the show thought I was pregnant. Once again, producers were telling me that I looked too big, that I needed to be thinner, and that I was presenting the wrong imagine to the public. These years, roughly from ages sixteen to eighteen, were not happy ones for me. 

The kids on "Fame" were not treated well. We had to use public bathrooms in the studio and were given ill equipped dressing rooms that were so tiny we could barely change in them.

Some of the cast members were real jokesters. I'd often open my breakfast case and find the food missing. Someone would take it just to tease me. The kids would blow pot smoke into my dressing room, knowing the smoke gave me a terrible headache. They were already a family. It was like an initiation, a rite of passage, and I was the new kid on the block.

In my heart, all I wanted to work on my relationship with James. But how? I'd be out until 2 A.M.,looking for him on the streets. Then I'd have to be up at four to be on the set by six. I was often late. I think I wanted to get fired. Fortunately, they did let me go. I had a three year contract but was released after the first year."

2012 Interview from the Cooper Anderson show.